The first Black-owned children’s bookstore in the state of North Carolina is shutting its doors after less than a year due to continuing threats aimed at the business and its employees.
When news of the impending closure hit the internet, many white commenters on X offered skepticism with a hint of racism.
Liberation Station Bookstore, which opened in June 2023 on the second floor of the Efird’s building in downtown Raleigh, will close on April 30, according to an announcement on Instagram by the store’s owner, Victoria Scott-Miller, who cited “numerous threats,” including a caller who took aim at one of her sons.
For much of the past year, the cozy little store has hosted regular public events while selling children’s books created by Black authors and other underrepresented writers and illustrators.
“Unfortunately, we live in a country that has given permission to the nameless and faceless people to make threats and cause harm, emotional harm,” Scott-Miller told station WRAL in Raleigh.
Despite the store’s positive impact in the community, the threats started in September and Scott-Miller’s fortunes took a sudden turn for the worse just a few months after opening.
“Since September, we’ve faced numerous threats,” she said. “Some we brushed off, while others included a disturbing phone call detailing what our son Langston wore when he was at the shop alone.”
Scott-Miller, who runs the store with her husband and 13-year-old son, vowed the store would reopen at a later time and place, saying she was eager to “go back to the drawing board to reassess and redefine what we will need in our next location.”
“It certainly won’t mark the end of Liberation Station Bookstore,” she said. “There is so much more work to be done.”
On the other hand, however, Scott-Miller acknowledged the pressure she’s faced, saying she and her family had to pause running the store for around two weeks last year to decompress from the ongoing…
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